Today, I offer a quick distraction from the normal food pictures that I post here…
One of the really cool things of Southwest Airlines are how we do our unique plane liveries (i.e. – paint jobs on our aircraft!) As I’ve worked at Southwest, I’ve travelled to airports, and I always get excited when I see one of our special liveries on the ground! I’ve always made a point to take a picture of special livery aircraft the first time I see it somewhere.
Today, Southwest released the “Tennessee One” (which at one point was the same plane that was the SI one!). You can watch the official video from Southwest here.:
As I looked for these planes while I was waiting for flights, I wondered–how could I predict where the planes were? Or if I was landing in one of our larger airports (Midway, McCarran, Skyharbor, Orlando, etc), what planes would I see? Were there any heading my way while waiting for a flight?
Well, one weekend, I solved that problem. Each of these planes have a story (mostly related to our history, to marketing, or to the locations we fly), and here’s a list of all of the ones that I know of that either ARE or WERE painted with special livery. You can see where they are today! (If no history shows up, that bird may no longer be in the air for us…)
(Special thanks to FlightRadar24.com for making this possible!)
| Name | Registration |
| 2,000th 737NG & 5,000th 737 produced | 2,000th (N248WN), 5,000th (N230WN) |
| 35th Anniversary | N238WN |
| 500th 737 | N281WN |
| Arizona One | N383SW |
| “Beats One” | N909WN |
| California One | N609SW |
| Charles E. Taylor One | N289CT |
| Colleen Barrett Classic/Heroine of The Heart | N714CB, N266WN |
| Colorado One | N230WN |
| Florida One | N945WN |
| The Fred J. Jones | N201LV |
| Green Plane | N222WN |
| Heart One & Two | N8642E & N8645A |
| The Herbert D. Kelleher One | N711HK |
| Illinois One | N918WN |
| Jack Vidal One | N601WN |
| The June M. Morris | N607SW, Original, Canyon Blue |
| Lone Star One | N352SW |
| Maryland One | N214WN |
| Metallic Gold One | N792SW |
| Missouri One | N280WN |
| Nevada One | N727SW |
| New Mexico One | N781WN |
| Nolan Ryan Express | N742SW |
| Penguin One | N280WN |
| Shamu | N713SW, N715SW (No longer Shamu) |
| Silver One | N629SW (Original, Silver Paint, Now, “Canyon Blue”) |
| Slam Dunk One | N224WN |
| The Spirit of Hope | N443WN |
| The Spirit of Kitty Hawk | N300SW, N301SW, N302SW |
| Spirit One | N793SA |
| Tennessee One | N922WN (Originally, the “SI One” (for Sports Illustrated)) |
| Tinker Bell One | N912WN |
| Triple Crown One | N409WN |
| Warrior One | N8301J |
Thanks so much for posting this. I was scouring sites everywhere to find how to locate/book flights that operate on specially-painted planes!
Sure thing! Note that the liveries have changed somewhat–we’ve sold a few of the old planes, and replaced them with new ones. Some of the N-numbers have been updated… I’ve tried to update them as best as possible, but there’s some here (like the Arizona One) which have been replaced.
Have you updated the livery info to include the new planes? This is a great tool – thanks
Hi John! Funny you should ask. I did update these very recently on my new blog, which is a travel blog. Here’s a link. Safe travels!
https://www.joesbucketlist.com/2022/12/17/southwest-airlines-special-liveries/